One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Steve Jobs' Death Beats Out News of Beyonce's Unborn Child For Most Tweets Per Second Record
News of Steve Jobs' death spread through Twitter faster than any other event in the (admittedly brief) history of the social media site, eclipsing the recent record held by news that Beyonce is preggo.
The social media monitoring firm SR7 expects official Twitter figures will show that in the hours after Steve Jobs' death was announced, his fans and admirers sent out 10,000 tweets per second, according to the Australian paper The Age. Keywords in tweets range from sadness (#iSad) to praises for both the man and his innovations (#ThankYouSteve). But you know this, if you went on the internet this week.
By comparison, Beyonce's performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, where it was revealed that she was pregnant, generated a record 8868 tweets per second, according to SR7.
This may say as much about Twitter as it does about Jobs. It's grown a ton. Way back in 2009 when Michael Jackson died, there were 493 tweets sent out per second, which was enough to bring up the fail whale screen.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
